Runelords 23.0 - The Shimmerglen
In the morning, the five adventurers returned to the reservoir to investigate the dam. Now presented with it, Luna surmised from the scale model that in order to vent the dam, there needed to be living beings within the ritual circles where they had found the trapped demon and the desiccated powder. Reasonably confident that it wouldn't kill them, Virgil and Eamon volunteered while Luna hit the switch. Paying with their life energy, the magic sapped the two men and powered the floodgates, letting the water out in a controlled flow, sparing the town a disastrous flood. With that problem solved, the group went back to the river and took a ferry to the edge of the Shimmerglen: a swamp bubbling with oily natural gas, creating shimmers in the air. Following a meandering boardwalk, they set off into the glen, despite warnings from the ferryman of its dangers. Unsure of whether they were experiencing a magical phenomenon or just getting high on the gas fumes, the group walked down the boardwalk, whose path seemed to get twistier and twistier as they went. Eventually, they came upon what seemed to be a series of floating lights; Khyr played with them, batting at the light, until he found one that wasn't a light at all: it was a pixie. The small winged individual of indeterminate gender called themselves Yap, and pleaded with them to come help. Apparently, the queen of the glen was in serious trouble, and the whole of the glen was in danger without her protection. Khyr and Virgil readily agreed to help, and the others followed complacently along. As Yap flew ahead, leading them breathlessly off the path, he explained that the queen had had her heart stolen by a mortal, and had fallen madly in love. However, the man had left, and now she suffered. Worse yet, the glen had been beset by disaster, and everything was getting worse by the day. He explained that small blue lizards had come and were destroying things, as he led them by a strange brick mound which appeared to be spitting jets of fire. As they traveled deeper into the swamp, they passed a pool that the pixie warned them not to look in. Luna and Aldern glanced in anyways and saw nothing but their reflections; Yap explained that it showed you what you looked like when you were dead. They also passed by a giant moored schooner which seemed highly out-of-place this far inland. Eventually, they came to an entryway to a giant, tangled building-like mangrove tree. Everything about it and the surroundings seemed grey and ill, covered with an oily sheen. Virgil suddenly realized what must be happening: the blue lizards, the Shivering Ones, had come to mine the natural gas, explaining the brick furnace that they had seen earlier. The destruction of the natural balance as the fuel was harvested was causing the Etherians who shared the land to become ill. As they approached, Yap stopped them short: he could see shapes moving in the water of the pond at the tree's base, and said with terror that they were the guards of the Messenger of the Judges. The pixie speculated thought that he might be able to get them by if he hypnotized them. Waving his hands about, he apparently cast a spell and led the group into the tree roots. Once past the threshold, everyone experienced a jarring walk through a series of hallways that seemed to violate space and time. When it passed, only Khyrralien and Virgil found themselves in a large open throne-like room. The others, who had resisted the hypnotism, merely found themselves back outside the mangrove. Khyr and Virgil saw a large dual-bodied figure that had a strange presence, as though everything about it moved and existed in two places and two directions at once. It was a Judge of the Court of Order, and it spoke cryptically to a dryad, a plant-like woman named Myrenra who seemed distraught and ill, perched on a throne-like growth. The Judge was apparently concerned about her inability to perform her job, and the repercussions of such. The oppressing duality creature simultaneously turned and didn't turn to leave, whereupon it remarked on the Materians. It stated that it had no business with them, before moving and somehow not moving, and disappearing into nothingness. Now alone with the men, the dryad shouted angrily at them for being in her presence uninvited, but she seemed distracted by her pain and sorrow. Her love, a man named Lamar, was gone; she was convinced that he was dead and that was why she could no longer feel his presence. She ordered the men to bring him back, even if it was just his body, otherwise she would have to cover the land in vines to find him herself. They agreed to help in whatever way they could. Meanwhile, the other three waited outside the mangrove, as the shapes in the water began to surface. They appeared both fish-like and as pretty human women, as though partially covered by an illusion that masked their true, terrifying appearance. They spoke sweetly, and idly wondered how mortals had gotten there. The women spoke and moved with a predatory intent; they promised to grant wishes, and asked what they each wanted. Eamon fell under their spell, and muttered that all he wanted was a sandwich, and to go home. They grinned wolfishly, grabbed his legs and pulled him underwater. Luna and Foxglove, immune to their charms, frowned and tried to resist, but it was obvious that there was nowhere to run that wouldn't lead them deeper into the pond. Eventually, the two submitted without struggle: Luna asked wearily for the essence of necromancy, or "undying bones", and Foxglove almost cried that he didn't want to be afraid anymore. Both were pulled underwater. All three were subjected to the mermaid's physical desires, each trapped in their own underwater maelstrom of an orgy before being rushed away as though trapped in a current, resurfacing alone elsewhere in the swamp. Eamon was stuck in a coffin-like box holding a turkey sandwich. Luna found that her right shoe and sock had been stolen and that her toe had been torn off, flayed, and the bones returned to her wrapped in a note. Foxglove, who had experienced a strange sensation of having been three separate people for a moment, woke up in the swamp water alone. Virgil and Khyrralien, escorted by Yap, exited the mangrove shrine and were led back towards the boardwalk before the pixie took his leave, pleading that they help as quickly as they could before the entire glen was ruined. They made their way back to the path and began to walk towards the docks they had entered from, hoping to find people along the way. They crossed paths with Eamon first, sitting in a box that he had pried open, eating a sandwich and looking depressed. They found on the lid a paper had been glued; reading it, it appeared to be a Sending spell that had been modified to only be able to contact Pandemonium. On the lid of the box was written an address in Angelic, directing it to Pandemonium Fortress. The whole thing had been set up as a parcel for mailing, complete with a stamp and address. Taking the Sending scroll and leaving the box, they picked Eamon up and continued on. Shortly after they found a fuming Luna and a somewhat discombobulated Foxglove, the former of which was muttering threats about burning the glen down. The note she had received, besides making a facetious comment about how her own bones were technically undying, mentioned that what she really sought could be found at "the forge at the edge of the planes", which she was too frustrated to appreciate as legitimate help. They continued towards the docks. On their way back, they happened to catch sight of a bunch of kobolds apparently sawing a tree down. However, when the group approached to speak to them, the kobolds scattered into the swamp and disappeared. The group returned to the docks, rang a bell to summon a ferry, and made their way back to Turtleback Ferry. They found that they had lost three whole days while apparently in Etheria. Upon reaching the town, Eamon, Luna and Foxglove immediately went back to their inn rooms, disparaged and distraught from their unwanted experiences. Khyr and Virgil went to the church to check on the Black Arrows. The three people they had rescued, Jack, Kevan and Vale, were all in much better health. Ilsa was there as well, and the six people discussed what their plan of attack was for reclaiming Fort Rannick. The two adventurers explained what they knew about the red-haired monster and her designs on the town, and what they had just learned about the dryad and Lamar. Lamar was apparently the commander of the Black Arrows, and the news that he had been consorting with a fey was surprising to the four mercenaries at the least. Vale had strong aversions to letting the adventurers bring his body to the dryad over a proper burial, but the argument was laid aside for the time being. The Black Arrows agreed that they would be in fit enough shape to leave the next day. Later that night, when Luna asked her about her opinions on the note, Zara claimed that it was actually a decent clue: "the edge of the planes" implied that it wasn't in any of the planes of existence, and rather would be in the astral plane, a pocket dimension, or a place of overlap such as Pandemonium, all of which were much more narrowed-down and simple to investigate than the entirety of the multiverse. Luna also queried about regrowing her toe, but was reasonably discouraged at how difficult a negatively-aligned Regeneration spell would be, owing to the complexity of the base spell. Sighing, she prepared for their next challenge. Category:Rise of the Runelords